Arc 5: The Heart Within
Road to a Hero:
Three chances in another world
Chapter 23. Forest of spires
Gray stands beside Dema and Peter, with his back against the wall as he looks at all the useless destruction that had taken place within not only the ballroom but the king's quarters as well. The room that was once the king's quarters has now become a hole in the ballroom's ceiling. The ballroom itself has already seen enough destruction, not even half a year has passed since Kioshi and Musashi had their battles with the Pillars of Anarchy. And now another battle is ravaging the room, sad.
Arthur: “This is it, “Phantom Knight”...how do you like that name by the way? I heard some of the random Sect members callin’ you that so I put it on your bounty poster.”
Gray: “I didn’t think I’d make it to the point where I’d get a title let alone get one in just…what day is it?”
Arthur: “March fourteenth I think…or the second, but that means you have only been here for...five months!? You’ve had a hell of a time. I’ve spent twenty-six years here by now and I’m finally getting somewhere.”
Gray: “I would still be living in the mansion if you hadn’t attacked it, so you started my story.”
Arthur: “Sucks I gotta end it to.”
Gray: "LAME!"
Arthur stretches his arms, burns his wounds away, and then sends a strong blast of flames toward Gray. Gray moves out of the way, letting the flames hit the wall behind him. The flames blast through the wall, it takes Gray a second to understand why the wall is so weak, but then he realizes that it’s the same wall that Musashi had burst through when he saved him that short time ago.
Gray {Helping me from beyond the grave huh…this gives me an idea.}
Gray runs and jumps out of the opening in the wall, which forces Arthur to follow.
Arthur: “DON’T RUN NOW!”
Gray uses his cloak to grab onto the wall and pull himself up. Before Gray can get up the wall and onto the roof, due to its length, Arthur is already out of the castle, using his flames to shoot out of his feet and keep him in the air. He uses a quick burst of power to get above Gray, then blasting a wave of flames to consume him.
Arthur: “YOU’RE LESS THAN A PHANTOM AND MORE OF A DAMN SPIDER! AND I HATE SPIDERS!”
Gray: “THAT’S SOMETHING WE CAN AT LEAST AGREE ON!”
Gray jumps off the wall before the attack can reach him. Arthur uses flames from his feet to fly past Gray and land on the opening in the wall, blocking Gray from reentering. Gray pulls out his sword, charging mana and spirits around it.
Gray: “BREAKER!”
Gray slices the air, through a short blast of mana right at Arthur. Arthur chops at it with a flaming hand, disrupting the attack, then following up with a finger-flaming shot. It barely misses Gray, but as he falls, it touches a bit of his cloak, causing it to burn up, and pushing him back. In a second the cloak is consumed with flames, forcing Gray to pull the cloak into the charm. But without the cloak, he goes into a free fall. Since the flaming shot pushes him back, he’s too far from the wall to grab onto it, sending him into a panic.
Gray {DAMMIT! NOT LIKE THIS! PLEASE, SOMETHIN’! THEY DIDN’T ALMOST DIE FOR ME TO DIE LIKE AN IDIOT!}
Dema begins to get up, forcing through all of the pain and injuries she’s suffered so that she’s able to assist Gray. She bolts past Arthur, knocking him down.
Arthur: “NO!”
Dema dives down at high speeds, catching Gray mid-air.
Gray: “Dema, I LOVE YOU!”
Gray gives Dema a pat on the back, then grabs her reins and flies to the top of the castle.
Arthur: “The hell are you going!”
Arthur leaps out of the castle, using bursts of flames to propel himself up. Gray reaches the roof first so he looks around. He notices something on a part of the castle's roof, an area where they kept adding additions and rooms, so there are what seems to be fifteen or twenty different spires big enough to hide behind.
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Gray {Now that I get a better look at this castle, it’s shaped kinda weird. Athen looked like a big pillar, but this one’s like multiple more miniature castles and rooms combined. It’s like a forest of spires}
Gray gets a good look at the capital as well, and he’s horrified by what he sees. Destroyed buildings, hundreds dead, thousands upon thousands of people running for their lives, pure horror. Arthur reaches the forest of spires and looks around, trying to find Gray.
Arthur: “COME ON GRAY! I DIDN’T WAIT FOR YOU TO HAVE TO PLAY HIDE AND SEEK!”
Gray gets off Dema, trying to get her to fly away, but she resists. Gray begins whispering to her, trying to ease her. Burns are found all across her body, she’s just a baby, only a year or so old. She nudges Gray like she’s trying to egg him on, giving him an idea.
Gray: “Dema, you sure?”
Dema turns her head, almost as if she understands what he means. He places his hand on her back, takes a deep breath, and casts the spell. Arthur hears Gray whisper the spell, blasting flames toward the spire. The spire gets destroyed, and nothing can be spotted behind it, then suddenly a “boom” is heard, echoing through the air. Arthur begins to sweat, almost like he’s scared. He sees a flash go by him, and then the powerful wind being pulled behind the speeding object knocks him over. His eyes widen, watching as gold-glowing Dema speeds through the air, powered up by Khightic. Gray stretches his cloak out, letting it grasp onto two of the spires. He then pulls back, so when he lets go he slingshots himself right at Arthur, who's been trying to hide from Dema's blitzing movements.
Gray {It may be a bad idea to use this move this early…but I need the odds in my favor.}
Mid-slingshot he uses his wrist talons, aims them forward so he can stab into Arthur, and casts Khightic, and thanks to both his and Dema's spiritual connetion, the spell takes way less of a toll on their bodies compared to someone like Rosemary. But Dema is still hurting, and with the spell taking a heavy toll on the user's stamina, she only has one attack left. Gray crashes right into Arthur, and Arthur’s barely able to maneuver himself out of the way of Gray’s wrist blades. Arthur grabs Gray’s straight sword and then swings it right at Gray. Gray knows that his wrist blades will break if he uses them to block, so he pulls out his other sword in a flash.
Gray {If I use my spiritual sense, Khightic might force me into the spirit state, and I can’t risk losing control of my body. But I can feel the power coursing through my veins!}
Dema is about to fall out, her vision wanes, and her blood boils. Something within her shifts, like her body, is growing, and something she should have gained by just growing older has been sped up, but what that is can’t be found since she loses consciousness. She lands atop one of the many spires, forcing Gray to fight Arthur on one. For a showing of how powerful Arthur and his willpower are, he’s able to keep up with a powered-up Gray. Swift accurate movements are interchanged between opponents. Gray attempts to empower his cloak with pure spirit mana, but with all the action he’s unable to get time to try. Arthur fuels Gray’s stolen sword with thick flames, so when they clash another sword strikes the flames explode, tossing Gray back. Gray uses this as an advantage, using the cloak to attach to the spires, swinging around like a superhero. At which speed Gray moves, Arthur is unable to predict where he’s going to appear, having to only hope that the quick flashes of Gray he’s able to see don't randomly attack him. Gray then quickly uses Arthur's inability to see him accurately and hides away behind one of the spires.
Gray {I can already feel the spell wearing off…dammit I’ve only been using it for a few minutes! It may not have been the best call, Knightic is more of a “Use the big attack now!” ability and less than a “Power up” ability…Wait how much mana do I have left!?}
Gray begins to think but it is interrupted by the sound of explosions. He jumps out of his hiding place and catapults himself toward Arthur. Arthur stops his destruction of the spires to blast his dark flames at Gray. Gray, unable to block to attack, stretches out his hand and casts Walnic. A transparent blue shield appears in front of him, connected to his right hand, blocking the flames. The second the flames dissipate his shield does as well, so they once again prepare for a clash. Arthur charges up another attack, swinging Gray’s sword while Gray swings his short sword, and with the difference in sword strength the straight sword cleaves through the short sword, leaving Gray without a sword and open to another attack. Gray bends the cloak around, grabs a large piece of the broken sword, and flings it at Arthur's face, forcing him to dodge. This allows Gray to use the last of Khightics power, focusing it all into his fist, as well as as much mana as Gray's arm can handle, and punches Arthur directly in the face.
Gray: “MANA OVERDRIVE!”
Gray's hand becomes enveloped in a pulsing aura of purplish black mana, which hits Arthur so hard it punches him back and even knocks a tooth out. Arthur places his palm on Gray’s chest, bends back, and blasts a flame so powerful it sends Gray upwards. Arthur leaps with his flames, then kicks a blast of flames to the side, and then one final leap at Gray. Arthur had managed to not only get above Gray but also get at an angle to hit Gray off of the roof of the castle and only down to a side yard. Arthur continues to use Gray’s sword, hitting Gray with it mid-air, sending Gray flying off the castle. As Gray flies through the cold night sky he manages to grab Arthur's leg with his cloak, yanking Arthur towards him. Arthur allows this, so once he gets up close to Gray he uses his flames to rocket the two down hundreds of feet.
Gray: “HEY! WE’RE BOTH FALLING HERE!”
Arthur: “I KNOW! LET’S SEE IF YOU CAN TANK THE FALL!”
Gray attempts to kick Arthur off, but he won’t budge. Arthur stretches his legs back, then exerts a great gust of flames, propelling them further up into the glistening night sky. They burst through the clouds, hundreds of feet above the castle. Arthur stops his flames, and Gray even stops fighting, they just look on into the sky.
Silence, no sounds of fighting, crying, destruction, or flames can be heard, just a cool breeze blowing through the air.
Gray: “Why…do this…why be this…”
Arthur: “The world we were used to belong to broke us both, you want to be the hero with your second chance at life, and I want to use it like my playground, doing whatever I want.”
Gray ponders to himself for a brief moment, then they are both brought out of the moment of levity when they begin falling.
Gray: “WHY IS IT GOOD TO BREAK PEOPLE!? TO TAKE THINGS AWAY!? TO LIE!?”
Arthur: “WHY DOSN’T IT!? I HAVE BEEN DOING WHAT ALL PEOPLE SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO, WHATEVER THE HELL THEY WANT!?”
Gray: “WHAT WOULD YOUR PARENTS THINK, WHAT WOULD ANYBODY WHO LOVED YOU THINK!?”
Arthur: “MY PARENTS ARE GONE! I LIED TO YOU WHEN I TOLD YOU WHAT MY LIFE WAS LIKE! I’M STILL SURPRISED YOU BELIEVED ME!”
Gray is surprised by this, learning that all he’s thought about Arthur was just a lie, and then Arthur gets a clean kick to his stomach. Dema begins to get up, still suffering from whatever is going on in her body. Sparks in her mana, energy forming, though it’s too little of an amount to do anything. She extends her wings and flies up into the sky. Gray sees her flying towards them, so Gray propels himself by focusing mana into his legs, kicking the air to push him towards a slow-flying Dema. Arthur tries to stop Dema's flight, shooting flames out of his eyes, and burning her body. She’s barely able to keep Gray from falling, so she goes as fast as she can to the ground, and Arthur follows close behind, falling at great speeds. Dema stops flapping her wings, trying to glide down to the yard below. Gray uses his cloak to pick up some wind, slowing their descent. However, this is stopped by Arthur when he throws another fireball at his cloak, burning holes in it. In, out, in, out, in…out… Dema’s breathing becomes slower and slower as she loses her last bits of strength, and suddenly, just as they’re about to land, she loses consciousness, crash-landing on the cobblestone path below. Gray gets up and immediately understands where he is. He looks at the small cabin, the walls, the path, and the grass. He is in the same location he was when he left his second chance at life when he lost faith in himself and left all his friends, and now he has returned. Cathartic, is it not?
End of Chapter twenty-three